Truth be told, not everyone is cut out to be a programmer or a developer. That doesn’t mean that not everybody can learn to code, plenty will really enjoy it. Here we’re talking about programming as a profession and whether such a career would suit you. According to many of my friends and distinguished professionals who enjoy the workflow and challenges of programming, even talented students with the highest degree and collection of accolades in programming may not turn out to be a good programmer. Why, you ask? Because there are certain traits that indicate early signs that you may not be fit for a programming job.
In reality, there’s more to programming than just the act of coding. The programming individuals need to have a knack in seeing the bigger picture clearly before others even begin to assimilate their thoughts together. Therefore, we have shortlisted some of the traits that an individual may have to deal through if they choose programming jobs.
1. Hustling at Work Isn’t Really Your Thing
Change is the only constant in the development world. And that starts with ‘inconsistent and irregularly long work hours’. Even before considering a development job, you need to know that pouring extra hours of hard work is a given. And that means there’s no fixed timing for your work. Be it for looming deadlines or working for your own pet project, or even working as a freelancer, coding teams often get into a ‘crunch time’ and are unbothered if they have to stay there continuously. Then there are certain programming problems that are going to be latched into your brain even when you’re away, trying to call it a day. There are many developers who struggle with finding the right work-life balance. Dynamic work timings may have you letting go of other obligations you have at home. Therefore, if you are ready to start your development career, you need to be ready to hustle.
2. You Can’t (Or Don’t Like To) Fly Solo
Programmers need to be self-driven, and be constantly looking to upskill themselves. The software industry is constantly changing, and an active mind is necessary to ensure one’s career doesn’t become stagnant. All great programmers need to be able to consistently renew their motivation. For this, you need to set your own goals, be on constant lookout for growth, and keep loving what you do. If you feel that learning something new every day might be too time consuming, then you may not enjoy becoming a programmer.
Programming has the perception of being quite a solitary career. This isn’t necessarily true, many programmers are part of a team, the idea of being solitary is more about the actual work being quite focused and quiet rather than needing constant discussion. Although, programmers who aren’t working for a development company can find themselves feeling lonely from time to time. To counter this, many freelance programmers are now moving to coworking spaces. Coworking spaces both allow programmers to work in solitude, but still have access to social opportunity, the coworking experience might be what you’re looking for!
3. You Aren’t Left AND Right-Brained
Programming is more about fixing than creating, and therefore, programmers need to tailor their minds to solve specific problems. That requires a huge dollop of creativity, a generous helping of logical reasoning, a large amount of understanding for Quantitative elimination (mathematical aptitude), and yes, the most important—lots of patience.
While the latter may be necessary for plenty of careers, the former skills are only found in programmers. For example: Does a red flag fly in your brain every time someone asks you to write a small test code or come up with the right approach to solve logical riddles? Well, since the development world is a multi-faceted one that each requires solving complex and variable systems in several stages such as: testing individual modules, debugging and algorithm development.
For all this, you’ll need a strong understanding of mathematical concepts, trigonometric functions and factorials. This process becomes rewarding for programmers who love their work. If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy these rewards or doesn’t find inspiration this way, you might find professional programming tedious.
4. You Hate Team Meetings and Planning
It’s a common myth that developers go to work, grab steaming mugs of coffee, only to sit throughout the day in front of the computer with hands weaving code magically over the keyboard. This just isn’t true. As a programmer, you need to spend a lot of time planning and charting out potential projects and algorithms for your code that will become relevant later in the development process.
Regular meetings are a necessary part of the development process, you need to be willing to listen and contribute to meetings and to make your teams programming more efficient, and understand the role your code plays in the development scenario. Programmers work in close-knit teams that are like-minded and collaborative in nature. Therefore, if you are more into working in the smaller parts and let someone else take the driver’s seat for you, the life of a programmer isn’t meant for you.
5. You Believe Programming is Your Ticket To Being Rich Quick
Once programming careers were thought of as a lucrative industry that makes people professional millionaires overnight. While there have been a few cases here and there (like the overnight rise in popularity of ‘Flappy Bird‘), there have been many individuals who went straight into the perfect brainstorming sessions in front of a computer for 10-12 hours a day, just for money! Here’s the dealbreaker: If you’re in it for money, it won’t be long before you are frustrated with your work and leave the industry altogether. Even successful people who claim they only program for monetary returns, deep down they love programming and software development in general. Don’t believe us? Well, here are a few testimonials from Indie game developers (much like FlappyBird) who open up about their experiences.
Image Credits: Verge
6. You Aren’t a Good Listener
Clear communication is crucial to the development of software, be it ideas about development between you and your teammates, or even showing a required update to a client. You need to be able to see solutions from others’ perspectives, because theirs might be better!
Listening to clients is a big part of a freelance programmers role. The better you can listen, the more accurate your submitted work is. If you’re not being asked to constantly change things, you’ll quickly become one of the most sought after freelancers. Why? Because each change needed means more time and therefore more money spent by the client. Of course, this is partially dependent on how well a client can communicate their ideas, but being able to understand non-technical clients is part of a freelancers job.
Conclusion:
Programming can be a pretty difficult skill to acquire, but it’s something that most people can do with commitment. In fact, it’s pretty similar to learning a new real-world language. If you share a natural curiosity towards learning new programming languages, and you love being around like-minded logical thinkers, programming is probably for you.
If you are looking for a job as an android app development team, the team at CodeClouds is always looking for talented individuals to join our team!
